1st San Andrean Volunteers

The 1st San Andrean Volunteers was a regiment of volunteer militia from the territory of San Andreas in California, founded in 1861 shortly before the American Civil War.

History
The San Andrean volunteers originated from the subsistence farmers of Blaine County and the businessmen of the city of Los Santos to the south of the rural county, founded in 1823. Most of the volunteers were white Anglo-Saxon Protestants who had overthrown the Mexicans in the Bear Flag Revolt, but they were divided into the rural country folk of Blaine County and the city-dwellers and businessmen of Los Santos County. An assortment of two different types of people, the San Andrean Volunteers proved to be diverse.

John W. O'Shea, a veteran of the revolt and an Irish-American farmer, was appointed as Colonel of the 1st Volunteers in April 1861 shortly after the Battle of Fort Sumter that began the American Civil War. The regiment was sent to join the California Column during the New Mexico Campaign, in which they would fight the Confederate States Army's Army of New Mexico in many battles from February to April 1862. After the clash at the Battle of Glorieta Pass, the "Gettysburg of the West", they advanced into Texas following the retreat of Henry Hopkins Sibley's Confederate forces in the West from New Mexico and Arizona. In winter 1864 they secured Chihuahua and other parts of Texas, and ended the war in West Texas. On February 1866, they were mustered out of service.